The Permanent Forum urges States to address the stark inequality between indigenous and non-indigenous people in all aspects of life, which has been heightened as a result of COVID-19, by implementing in full the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in all their legal norms and public policies related to indigenous peoples.
The global engagement of indigenous peoples at the international level has led to some positive institutional developments, including the establishment of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples can play an important role in the fight against climate change. Member States and United Nations entities should ensure that any activities related to the use of the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples respect indigenous peoples’ own protocols and consent agreements for managing access to their traditional knowledge. Strengthening and ensuring the full participation of indigenous peoples at all levels is also critical for the design and implementation of climate policies, plans, programmes and projects at the local, national and global levels.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its call to Member States to redouble their efforts to ensure disaggregated data collection on indigenous peoples (in accordance with target 17.10) and to include complementary indicators on indigenous peoples in voluntary national reports submitted by Governments for meetings of the high-level political forum on sustainable development. Data disaggregated by ethnicity will help Governments to make informed decisions in a culturally appropriate way in response to the specific needs of indigenous peoples. The Forum underlines the importance of applying a human rights-based approach to data collection, including on ethnicity.